This invention relates to a clear hair conditioning composition for application following shampooing. More particularly, it relates to a clear, essentially aqueous, water-white hair conditioning composition having excellent conditioning properties and stability at low temperatures.
Rinses typically are preparations which are applied to wet hair following shampooing and then rinsed out with clear water before the hair is set and dried. For many years an acid consisting of lemon juice or vinegar in water was considered an essential finishing touch to shampooing in order to remove residual soap film. Many proprietary products served this same function. With the advent of surfactant-based shampoos and improvement of soap shampoos, this type of rinse has fallen into disuse.
Three types of after shampoo rinses find reasonably widespread use today: creme rinses, dandruff rinses and hair coloring rinses.
Creme rinses are used after shampooing to give the hair a better finish, particularly with respect to softness and lubricity. They are particularly effective in eliminating snarling and improving wet combability. Almost without exception, creme rinses are based on quarternary ammonium compounds substantive to the hair. The quaternary ammonium compounds are effective antistatic agents and tend to reduce friction on wet hair. Typically, a creme rinse is a viscous, opaque liquid concentrate, which may be pearly in appearance. The active quaternary ammonium compounds in most creme rinses is stearyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride; another common use is distearyldimethylammonium chloride.
In a similar manner, in recent years considerable effort has been directed toward developing creme rinse shampoos. These shampoos containing cationic resins or nonionic materials of low solubility in anionic-amphoteric surfactant systems. Several synthetic polymers have been used in creme rinse shampoo compositions, including Polymer JR (Union Carbide), a polymer of hydroxyethylcellulose reacted with epchlorohydrin and quaternized with triethylamine, and Gafquat Quaternary Polymers (quaternized vinypyrrolidone copolymers), available from GAF Corporation.
Present day trends toward more natural hair styles has created a need for a conditioning agent which need not be rinsed from the hair following application as is required with conventional creme rinses. The requirements for such a conditioning agent are that it must be a clear, water-white, essentially aqueous solution which can be applied to the hair following shampooing without rinsing and which provides softness, fly-away control and body to dry hair and manageability to both wet and dry hair, such as wet combability, freedom from snarls and lubricity. In addition the conditioning agent must not leave a residual film on the hair, perceived as an unnatural feel.
Certain cationic high molecular weight (1,000,000) copolymers of vinylpyrrolidone and dimethylaminoethylmethacrylate quaternized with dimethysulfate or diethysulfate are soluble in water and provide excellent conditioning action when used in combination with stearyldimethylbenzyl ammonium chloride. However, it was discovered that stearyldimethylbenzyl ammonium chloride exchanged with the polymer in solution, causing insoluble steryldimethylbenzylammonium sulfate to precipitate on standing and producing an undesirable and unacceptable haziness in the clear rinse composition, particularly at low temperatures, such as encountered in the winter, for example, 5.degree. C to -10.degree. C.
Of many compounds investigated to find a replacement for stearyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride which did not exchange with the polymer, one, oleyl dimethylbenzyl-ammonium chloride, provided clear, water-white aqueous solutions. It does not appear to interact or exchange with the polymer to produce an insoluble precipitate, Moreover, oleyl dimethylbenzylammonium chloride provided excellent conditioning (anti-static) properties equal to solutions containing stearyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride. Additionally, the clear rinses are stable at the aforementioned low temperatures.